Veteran Sideman Makes Solo Flight
Photos by Haley Gjertsen
Mandolin whiz Ashby Frank who lays down the groove for progressive bluegrass group Mountain Heart has spent a quarter of a century recording and touring for other people. But in all that time he hasn’t used his abundance of talent as a singer/songwriter/instrumentalist to showcase his own music until now. His new album, Leaving is Believing feels like his debut, but he actually recorded his freshman project as a teenager.
“I started my first album when I was fifteen years old, so recording this new album really felt like I was doing my first project as a solo artist,” Frank told Bluegrass Unlimited. “My first album is special to me, but it was so long ago. It still serves as a snapshot in time of a young mandolin player who grew up around some amazing musicians in North Carolina and Virginia and was finding his way and style.”
In the long interim Frank built a wealth of experience musically that strengthened his skills for this new material. “Leaving is Believing is the product of me gathering and writing songs over the last twenty years on the road touring and living and working in Nashville. I’ve been a part of several band albums that I’m proud of, and have done well on the charts, but this is my first album just for me. I’ve spent most of my life in tour buses, vans, cars, trains, planes, cruise ships, recording studios, hotel rooms, and at venues ranging from bars and listening rooms to giant festivals and iconic large theaters. I started touring with bands as a teenager, and there are bits and pieces of all of those situations in these songs.”
Those years of learning and growing gave him a deeper perspective when he was able to record his solo music. “I think that one of the best ways to grow as a musician is to listen to new records from all genres, and also record and perform with people of all ages and backgrounds. You have to keep your ears open and keep learning your entire life, or you lose inspiration. Hearing how someone plays off of what you play and vice versa changes how you listen to yourself and what’s around you. I usually enjoy being in a recording studio with folks I’ve never worked with before for that reason, but there’s also some magic that happens when you record with your friends that you have worked with dozens of times before. I guess it’s all about staying inspired and finding balance. I don’t know if I’m very good at that yet, but I’m always trying.”
The Golden Touch
Frank has that Midas touch in the musical world with every area he touches, whether it be singing, playing mandolin, or writing songs. As a tunesmith, he has penned hits for Dale Ann Bradley, Junior Sisk, Lindley Creek, and Lonesome River Band. “The first song that I ever had recorded by another artist was a song called “I Did the Leaving for You” that my friend Junior Sisk cut. The fact that someone that I think picks great songs and sings them so well would record something that I wrote was really exciting and encouraging for me.”
That validation continued with his first really successful song on the radio called “Signs,” that he wrote and then recorded as a member of The Special Consensus. “This was also the first time I sang lead on a radio single of any kind, so it was doubly important for me as an artist. I will always be grateful that Greg Cahill gave me the opportunity to be in that band and grow as a lead singer and writer while I was there.
Then, in 2020, Bradley cut the song, “Falling Down” that became a #1 hit. Frank wrote the song many years ago in an ice storm leaving a gig in Memphis.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to work on some of Dale Ann’s tours over the years, and she would always mention recording this song every time we worked together, but she didn’t get around to it until the album she made during the pandemic. The song is about dealing with anxiety, uncertainty, and depression, so I guess it wasn’t meant to be recorded until 2020. I was honored that not only did she record the song, she also asked me to play mandolin and sing harmony on the album.”
Frank first started writing songs in his early teens. “My dad, grandmother, and sister were always making up songs and parodies, so making up lyrics just came naturally to me I guess. I never really had that “ah ha” moment that some people do when they write their first decent song. It’s just something that comes naturally to me. I will say this, though, I am pretty unorthodox in the way I write. Sometimes I will write two-three songs in a week, and then I won’t write a single song in six months. Most of the time, it just takes one little phrase or scene that I hear or that comes to me, and I go from there. The process usually starts in the notes app on my phone or with a text message to another writer. I have written most of the cuts I’ve had by myself. I have been co-writing more over the last few years, and I’m starting to prefer that process over just doing it by myself. I’ve never been into the ‘I have a write at 10am and 2pm’ scene in Nashville, even though I probably should be. I look for inspiration to write a song, and I don’t generally find that in a room with two windows and mostly blank walls.”
Ashby picks up the guitar to assist when he’s writing songs and on a few studio sessions, but mandolin remains his primary instrument. “I had heard a mandolin being played by my cousin Scotty Temple’s wife Cathy at family functions since I was a small child, but it wasn’t until I started taking guitar lessons from a gentleman named Len Presnell who attended the same church as my family that I developed a real interest in it. Mr. Len was known as a great mandolinist in the area and would bring his mandolin with him to our guitar lessons, so I started learning both instruments after a short time.”
“Then I started listening to every CD I could find with mandolin on it. Pretty soon after I started, my parents took me to a Jim and Jesse concert, and then to Denton where John Duffey, Alan Bibey, Wayne Benson, Adam Steffey, and Ronnie McCoury were performing, and then MerleFest where I saw Sam Bush and Chris Thile, and I was hooked after that summer.” In 1994, he performed with Bill Monroe at the Bell Cove Club in Hendersonville, Tennessee at age 11, a year after starting mandolin lessons. Five years later he won first place in the mandolin competition at MerleFest
Ashby’s philosophy is to keep the playing simple to complement the singer and song. “I’m not the flashiest player, and honestly I’m not really all that into complex instrumentals, so maybe that’s why I consider myself more of an ensemble or band player. My favorite thing to do is groove with a great rhythm section and accentuate vocals and melody.”
For the first part of his career, Frank was the mandolinist and harmony singer, but eventually, he stepped into the lead vocalist role. “When I was performing in town with Mashville Brigade and on the road with Special Consensus a little over a decade ago, that was my first real experience with singing lead in a pro band, and it helped my confidence level and hopefully improved my stage presence. I spent several years after that singing country music on cruise ships where I would sometimes be singing four hours a day, and that definitely built up my chops. Just like any other skill, becoming a good singer takes talent, time, and effort. Learning that it’s ok to not be everyone’s cup of tea is also an important building block, and that’s especially difficult when you know you’re being judged on something that’s so personal to you. You have to be born with it, but you also have to know how to wrangle that talent and present it in a unique way.”
With Leaving is Believing, Ashby finally saw a dream of his fulfilled when he put his name out front, singing all the lead on his own album. “It took a horrible pandemic to give me the time and opportunity to finally do it. It can be a scary process, but you have to grow and evolve to make it in this business, and it’s been really rewarding so far.”
A Solid Foundation
Frank’s family was immersed in music. His mother is a pianist and music teacher, his sister is a “phenomenal singer” who performs in musical theater productions, his paternal grandmother’s family all sang in quartets, and her nephew was the legendary harmonicist and percussionist Terry McMillan.
“I don’t ever remember a time in my life when I wasn’t constantly around music. Being an “elder millennial” from North Carolina, I listened to a lot of 90’s country like Garth Brooks, Patty Loveless, Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, Diamond Rio, and Brooks and Dunn when I was a kid. I also listened a lot to the music my parents liked back then. My mom loves 60s pop and Christian music, and my dad is into outlaw country, rock, and bluegrass. Once I got into going to festivals, I started listening to bluegrass greats, such as Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Danny Paisley, Larry Sparks, Tim O’Brien, Lynn Morris, Ronnie Bowman, John Cowan, and Lou Reid.”
Being a homeschool student afforded Frank the opportunity to finish high school early and begin college at age 15, the same year he scored his first professional gig. “My friends Johnny and Jeanette Williams made the brave decision to hire a 15-year-old me to play mandolin and sing harmony with them for a couple of years. Not only did we play a lot out of our region, but they took me to France in 2001 on my first international tour. It was a lot of fun, and they’re some of the nicest people in the world.”
His music journey continued in the early 2000s with the band, Southern Drive, that won the Pizza Hut Bluegrass Showdown in Louisville. He played a few times with his former teacher Lou Reid and his band Carolina. Frank branched out around the region playing with Gena Britt, and a short-lived band called Five Speed with Clay Jones, Greg Martin, and Elmer Burchett.
Ashby’s career began to pick up even more momentum when he moved to Nashville in 2003. He landed a job with Ronnie Bowman and the Committee and also with Marty Raybon. “Marty had just made his return to bluegrass after years with Shenandoah, and one of our first gigs was at the Grand Ole Opry, so that was pretty special,” Frank said.
A few years later he toured with Alecia Nugent’s band for several seasons of touring before hooking up with The Special Consensus in 2007. “Those were some really great and crazy years working constantly on the road.
During my time with Special C, I was also performing weekly at The Station Inn with some of my buddies from other pro bands. We called ourselves “Mashville Brigade” and eventually put out an album of classic bluegrass covers that did so well that I decided to leave the busy touring schedule that Special C is known for, and start managing and booking Mashville on the road while working part time in Dale Ann Bradley’s band.”
He was enjoying those incredible highs in his musical life when a few months later, life took a tragic turn. “I lost just about everything I owned except for my instruments when my house was hit by the 2010 Nashville flood. So when the opportunity presented itself, I decided to go back to sideman duties and joined up with Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper. Also during this time period, I co-founded the band “The Likely Culprits” with Brandon Bostic, Deanie Richardson, Austin Ward, Garnet Bowman, and Melonie Cannon and we started performing weekly in Nashville. Garnet’s husband Ronnie Bowman eventually joined the band, and we wound up releasing an album in 2019 that I’m really proud of. We still occasionally perform.”
Unfortunately, two year later, Frank’s financial situation left over from the flood hadn’t improved. “I made the tough decision to start working full time on cruise ships, which in retrospect was really good for me as an artist who had only been in the bluegrass world up to that point.” Frank was able to return to Nashville six months later and began touring on guitar, mando, and background vocals with Canadian country singer/songwriter Jaida Dreyer and working on the road with his buddies and two of his favorite singers, The Crowe Brothers. “I wound up doing a few more short stints on ships over the next few years, while building up my work as a session musician, instructor, songwriter, and performing on a part-time or fill-in basis with several different bands on the road, such as The Earls of Leicester, The Lonesome River Band, John Cowan, Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, and Dale Ann Bradley.
Road Warrior Rages On
The veteran sideman continues to burn up the roadway touring. In 2018 he joined Mountain Heart on a temporary basis when Jeff Partin left and in a few months became a full-time member. “I’ve known [lead singer] Josh Shilling since he moved to town to work with Mountain Heart many years ago but never really had the opportunity to get to sing with him until I started with the band. We quickly found that our North Carolina/Virginia accents and phrasing make us sound almost like brothers when we sing harmony with each other, so it’s been a perfect fit and so much fun traveling with them over the last five years. Just like me, they all individually have many irons in the fire, so it works out really well. We recorded a new album with the incredible engineer Sean Sullivan over the last few weeks of 2022, and I’m really looking forward to that coming out.”
His job with Mountain Heart still allows him the freedom to flex his creative muscles in other areas of music like the Earls of Leicester. “I worked with the great banjo master Charlie Cushman in Flamekeeper for a couple of seasons, and he recommended me as a fill-in back in 2015 with the Earls of Leicester. They still call me occasionally when my friend Jeff White has a scheduling conflict with all of the other wonderful projects he works on, and it’s so much fun and quite a bit different from all of the other work I do. Sometimes Jerry [Douglas] is charitable and lets me have a mandolin solo or two, but most of what I do is chop and sing Curly Seckler’s tenor part. Curly was from China Grove, which is in the next county over from where I grew up in Davidson County, NC, so maybe I’m making it even more authentic. Who knows? I’m excited to be working with them this year at both the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and the Newport Folk Festival.”
Another fun musical twist in Ashby’s world became quite an unexpected success. He and Brandon Bostic, his co-producer, friend and bandmate in The Likely Culprits created the humorous alter egos, The Darrell Brothers. On one occasion Frank was standing in a long line at TJ Maxx when the two wrote “Mountain Twerker” via text message.
“One of us had just seen Miley Cyrus on TV and started talking about her performance. We recorded the song as a joke, and our friends liked it a lot, but we didn’t think much about it until Cindy Baucom played it for syndicated morning show hosts John Boy and Billy. They played the song on the air, and it got a huge response.” They enlisted several of their bluegrass friends including the “Granny,” Sharlene Hazelwood to be in the video and uploaded it to YouTube on their own brand new channel. The guys expected a few friends in the music world to watch. “Needless to say, we were a bit surprised when within 48 hours it was among the top trending music videos in the world on YouTube and Facebook. Since then it’s been viewed millions of times on various platforms. We followed that up with a few more videos, singles, and podcasts that were well received, but we’ve never really toured or performed other than hosting some events in character.
Frank has certainly been in a plethora of musical configurations. Besides Mountain Heart and The Earls, this year he has worked with Jason Carter, John Cowan, Ronnie Bowman, The Likely Culprits, and as a guest “Mr. Sadie” with Sister Sadie, among others. He also stays pretty busy around town as a session musician. Now the sideman wants to add another notch on his impressive resume, leading his own band. “I am starting to do some shows around Nashville under my name with a bunch of my friends from the bands that I work in, and this is definitely something I want to keep doing. Hopefully I can book a few festivals next year when time allows it.
I am pretty busy and having a blast with Mountain Heart and the five or six other bands I periodically perform with, but the overwhelming positive feedback and success of this album really makes me want to try and do some touring with this material. So promoters, hit me up!”
